3 things from my first year as a Product Manager
Last year at the same time, I restarted my full-time career as an IT Product Manager after moving to Norway. I chose to spearhead Factlines' next generation SaaS product by formulating the new IT solution, a new business model with Go-to-Market strategies.
I always have a great passion to start something new and innovative and love to see it evolving into a perfect value driven product covering market demands. I'm excited about the new challenges that are on my way and I very much enjoy working within SaaS/ cloud technologies and digital solutions.
On this occasion, I started to recall all that I have learnt in the initial days of my product management career. I thought it is a nice idea to list a few of them which have helped me to regain the momentum.
Asking is better than assuming ⁉️
When a new feature request is made, as a Product manager, we tend to say YES to it in the first place. This might solve things quickly in the meetings. Soon as it comes to practicality, we may see blocks in execution. This makes it difficult to effectively handle backlogs and can't deliver the user stories on time.
So, here comes the power of “SLOW YES”. Slow YES is nothing but, taking time to correctly respond by asking relevant questions about the new feature. This helps to understand the new feature and get a vague idea of WHY & HOW of the feature.
And before committing an YES, it is needed to thoroughly understand the feature first. Dig a bit deeper and think about what is the actual objective of the new feature, how it is going to better my product. Importantly, try to think of alternatives and foresee the consequences.
After all, if you think that this is going to bring a positive outcome, then take up the challenge and you will love to tackle it. When a new feature is defined, always remember to align the user story with the user acceptance. This makes it easy to measure the outcome and performance. 🧐 ✨
Having a well-organised day
A product manager’s day is usually filled with meetings. Whether your company is small or big, you hardly have enough time to do the actual work. It is a challenge to work on your own tasks after taking many meetings, assessing different perspectives and organising the teams and resources.
Though it sounds a bit tricky, I think I have made some progress in organising my days and work. I ensure to start my day with a list of things that have to be completed by the end of the day. Just the way, I prioritise my product’s backlog, I prioritise my tasks for the day and for the week.
Importantly, I prefer to take notes on a paper rather than making a digital list. Because, it gives me a sense of accomplishment which I tick it off as DONE ✅. As I get to see them in one go, I get a clear idea of what more I need to complete and I can manage my time and efforts accordingly.
I take it as an advantage working in a startup as there are many things that need to be worked on simultaneously and on closer deadlines. There is also an advantage of making and implementing decisions quickly within smaller teams. This way, the progress in work can be seen tangibly in less time.
Effective communication is the key!
As I mentioned in my previous point, product managers’ day is filled with meetings, where effective communication is a part of it.
When we spend a lot of time in meetings talking with various people from different backgrounds, it is important to develop the skill of communicating the required information at a suitable level. Not everyone needs all the information.
The smartness of a product manager lies in understanding what is too little and what is too much.
It could be a retrospection session with the scrum team, prioritisation of roadmaps with other product folks, or improvements & betterments with product designing team, or understanding the core value of the product from the stakeholders’ goals and desires, a product manager always has back-to-back discussions in a wider spectrum. With this setting, it is important to communicate the right kind of information at the right time.
I can make my product successful only when I make the right decisions. Such right decisions can be made when I can optimally consider everyones' viewpoints and perceive the incremental value. I'm responsible for my product - It means, I not only understand what my product is all about & what market challenge it is solving, but also communicate clearly to others.
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What do you think are important in the list?
Do you have more insights to share that contribute to the success of a product manager? Do you have questions to ask me? I would love to hear from you.
Feel free to write to me @ gayathriinfikatime@gmail.com
